Cooking for Dummies
by Boo Radley 5000
Summary: When given a second chance at life there are probably a few things that you'd want to learn. A series held loosely together. RobRae. Lesson One: How to Cook.
1. Cooking for Dummies

Hey, I'm back. Crazy I know. I only disappear for months at a time.

So here we go. It's something new and **definitely** not my best work (translates: don't judge me by this) but if I don't keep writing here then I will drop off the face of the planet. Any-way here is a pointless series about all of the different things that Raven would be able (or want to) learn after fully realizing that she gets to live. If you don't know the pairing then check out my penname real quick...there.

Any ideas on things that Robin could teach Raven would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I will run out. I will continue work on my other writings later, but the viewer attention is so low I'm wondering if they're good enough to continue. Enough ranting.

* * *

Chapter One 

**Cooking for Dummies**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the little paragraph separation bar things. Those are mine.

Quote: "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

-Salvador Dali

Warning: Ehhh...

* * *

Robin enjoyed Sundays most out of the week. The federal buildings were closed, most businesses opened late and closed early, the newspaper was thick, the comics were bright, and he could sleep in. 

That Sunday was one of those tricky days when it looks lovely out of the windows but was actually frigid. He turned the temperature up and listened to the strong wind as he drank his warm coco.

The latest Sunday mornings were particularly enjoyable. Starfire had recently discovered the joys of church choir singing, a hobby which Cyborg supervised and Beast Boy participated in as well. It was nice to have them out of the Tower. He usually got along very well with all of his teammates, but living with four other teenagers, two of whom were hyperactive and required _a lot_ of attention, was grating.

Starfire had asked Robin once to come to church with them as well in order to hear the singing, but he had begged off.

"It's my only day to sleep in and relax," he said avoiding the real reason which included getting away from everyone. He knew it would hurt her feelings despite the fact that it wasn't personal.

"But please, do not friends gather for festivities?" Star asked innocently.

"It's not a party," Robin sighed. "It happens every Sunday."

"Come on Robin," Beast Boy wheedled. "It's only four hours."

"Four?" Robin repeated.

"Yep," Cyborg confirmed. "One and a half per service and Star has to sing in the choir for both services."

"That makes three."

"There's a half-hour doughnut break in between and after," Cyborg said.

"And you know you love doughnuts," Beast Boy coaxed.

"He said he doesn't want to go," Raven said suddenly, startling all of them as she snapped her book shut and stood up. "He shouldn't go to church if he doesn't want to go to church."

She stalked off with her book under her arm. There was complete silence until after the doors slid shut behind her. Then Starfire asked slowly, "What is wrong with friend Raven? How did we anger her?"

"I think she's jealous," Beast Boy had said staring after her. "I don't think she can enter a church," he paused, "I mean she's half demon right? Can she go in a church? They're holy."

Cyborg had snorted. "Ours isn't. She'd be fine in there. Besides that's all a load of bull anyway."

* * *

Robin was startled from his reverie by the appearance of Raven herself. She smiled slightly as she saw his expression. She was able to full-out smile, yet having been so unused to expressing emotions for all of her life stopped her. Instead she gave slight smiles which everyone who knew her equated to being one of Starfire's brightest. Every time she smiled seemed to give her an equal amount of happiness and trepidation as though even now something might happen if she showed too much. 

Robin noted that she was still her pajamas and he snuck a glance at the clock. It was nine in the morning. Three more hours until the rest were back.

Raven walked over to the table where Robin was and sat across from him. He glanced down at his paper and then glanced back up to see Raven twisting a lock of her between her fingers unconsciously. Fidgeting was outside of Raven's realm of normalcy.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

She hesitated and then looked him full in the eyes. "Can you teach me to cook?"

Robin stared in silence and then repeated, "Cook?"

Raven nodded. "I don't know how to."

"How do you not know how to cook?" Robin asked.

Raven gave him an exasperated look that so reminded him of the old days that he grinned. "When would I have learned how to cook? After emotion-control class? Before finding out about the prophecy?"

"Okay those are valid excuses," he said. "But you've lived with us for _years_. How did you get away with not knowing how to cook?"

"I know how to microwave left-over pizza," she returned and then hesitated. "I'm trying to learn things that I never bothered to before because I didn't think I'd be alive long enough to need them."

It struck Robin that even though she wasn't as backwards as Starfire always appeared, Raven was also not from this world.

"So can you teach me?" Raven repeated.

Robin focused on her again and shrugged. "Let's try pancakes. Some edible ones."

Raven blushed at the mention of the pancakes that she had once attempted to make which failed so terribly. "Pancakes sound fine."

* * *

One hour later they both stood in the remains of a kitchen that they had somehow trashed. A sack of flour lay overturned on the table spilling the soft powder onto the floor with bare footprints trailing through it. There were the remains of eggshells that had somehow missed the waste bucket while an open can of frozen blueberries laid thawing and leaking over the counter and down the cupboard. 

There was a bowl of batter that had been abandoned due to the fact that Robin had forgotten to tell Raven to separate the egg whites and yolks. Also on the table was a large butter container whose actual contents were dead insects which were what startled Robin into jumping back upsetting the flour bag and blueberry can.

Then there were the seven bowls full of batter that surrounded Robin and Raven who were in front of the griddle. "There isn't supposed to be this much batter is there?" Raven asked.

Robin sighed inwardly. "I forgot to check how many servings the recipe makes, okay?"

Raven eyed the pancakes that were currently on the griddle waiting for the bubbles at the top as Robin had shown her to do. "How do servings work?"

"What?" Robin asked making a face as he wiped the egg shell and yolk off the bottom of his bare foot.

Raven eyed the pancake that seemed the most ready to be flipped. "The ingredient sizes change for the number of people?" she asked as she scooped the pancake up and tried to flip it.

She missed and it landed raw batter down on the floor next to the other failed attempts. "I can't get it like you can," she said.

"Of course there are different ingredient sizes for the number of people. You can't get more out of it than you put in." Robin answered as he walked back over to griddle and surveyed the mess of pancakes down by Raven's feet.

He watched as she sent another one flying into the air and then sighed. "The technique is in the wrist, not the arm," he said.

Robin reached around Raven to grasp her hand. "You're trying to _throw_ it up in the air using the whole arm," he demonstrated. "What you want is to just flick your wrist and catch it back on spatula."

With her hand in his he tried to get her to mimic the motion but her fingers were gripped too tightly. Using his other hand he slowly pulled her hand back and then rearranged it. "There," he said with both of his hands on her wrist, palm and fingers, "Now flick it."

Raven flicked it and the pancake went up in the air and fell by her feet with the rest of them. It took upwards of ten minutes with fourteen pancake casualties before Raven got the hang of it. Once she was tossing the pancakes adequately Robin let go of her hands and stepped back.

The sudden coolness that raced along the front of his body made Robin aware of just how close he and Raven had been. Turning and surveying the kitchen helped. The complete havoc and the five and a half bowls of batter left surrounded them.

Raven turned off the griddle and picked up the two plates that contained a modest three pancakes each and handed one of the plates to Robin. She stood next to him, took a bite of a pancake and looked around with an appraising eye.

Robin sighed. "We really shouldn't leave it like this."

"No," Raven agreed before she started walking away, "We definitely shouldn't."

Robin stared after her and then down at the plate of pancakes in his hands. Then he sat down on the couch (the table was full) and began to eat. Sunday was a day for relaxing after all.

* * *

I warned you. It'll get better, I promise. 

Review please.


	2. Driving for Dummies

And here is the chapter. Not in the final, _final_ form that is trapped on my dead computer, but one that I put together from the remains of an old email. Anyway, I took a suggestion to make this one. Any other suggestions for things she could learn?

Thank you for the patience. Partially beta-ed by Vo

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

* * *

Quote:

"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."

-Mahatma Gandhi

Chapter 2

Driving for Dummies

* * *

The next time that Raven came to visit him it was in the evening, after everyone had eaten (spaghetti with optional meatballs). It was dark and he was in his office, working on the crime reports that had to be submitted _every_day_. _It was a tiresome job that none of team besides himself seemed able to do. Not that he had ever asked.

There was a light knock on the door which Robin assumed was Starfire though the fact that it wasn't an excited pounding should have raised his suspicions. He sighed and walked over to the door. "I'm sorry Star, but I'm pretty busy ri-"

The door slid open and a dry voice said, "Oh, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I'll leave you to your crime reports then."

"Wait," he said quickly and she turned around with an eyebrow raised. "What did you need?"

Raven tilted her head to the side. "I thought you were busy."

Robin suddenly realized that Raven had noticed that she was allowed and Starfire was not. He gave silent thanks for not blushing as he quickly said, "Starfire has a habit of coming in and then not leaving for quite awhile. Which isn't to say that I'm expecting _you_ to leave quickly, it's just that…," Robin sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair, "You know what I mean."

"I can take a hint a bit better than Star can," Raven said succinctly.

Robin gave a quick grin and leaned against the door frame. "What did you need though?"

"I wanted another lesson," Raven said without a single emotion on her face.

"In cooking?" Robin asked, "I don't think we'll get another chance at the kitchen until this Sunday."

"I know," Raven said. "I wanted a lesson in something else."

Robin's mind quickly flitted to something that this time forced a blush out on his cheeks and he forced his mind back to reality. He was immensely relieved to see that Raven wasn't looking at him. "Which would be what?" he asked in a slightly choked voice.

"Would you teach me how to drive?"

There was silence for a moment. "Drive?" Robin echoed, "Why would you ever need to learn that? You can _teleport_."

Raven looked up at him, fully in the face as she couldn't see his eyes. "We aren't going to be the Teen Titans forever. You can't expect a normal life if you continue to vanish and emerge from black shadows."

Robin thought instantly of his mentor whose entire life consisted of what she had just described. "Wouldn't Cyborg be a better teacher than I would?" Robin asked, "I mean, he has the T-car."

"Do you really think that he would be willing to let me, a completely inexperienced driver, ever get behind the wheel? And besides, if Cyborg came then so would Beast Boy and then Starfire would want to join and I don't work in that sort of setting."

Robin had to stifle a smile as he pictured the scenario. Raven seemed to know what he was thinking anyway, judging by the glare she was sending him. "I could teach you how to ride the R-Cycle," he offered.

Raven's glare turned into that ghost-smile. "When?"

"I don't know," he said. "Anytime during the day we _will_ have an audience."

"What about the evenings?" she asked.

"That's when I have to write up the crime reports," Robin said gesturing towards the rather impressive stack of papers on the desk.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "I'll help you finish them," she said as though stating the obvious.

Robin hesitated for a moment. Raven stared at him. "Is it seriously that hard to decide? Less paperwork and more R-cycling? Do you really not want to teach me?"

"No, it's not that," Robin said quickly as he realized what he had inadvertently been expressing. "It's just…you don't know how to fill the forms out, and it might take longer to have to teach you than…" he trailed off as Raven's expression grew darker.

"Have I given you the impression that I cannot read?" she asked in decidedly dangerous voice.

It ticked Robin off that her voice could make him jumpy. The voices of most criminals didn't sound as dangerous as Raven could. "I _know_ you can read," he said, "It's just that you have to splice in all of these details and-"

"Give me a blank one, and a filled out one and I'll use the model to learn," Raven said as she walked into the (his) office and made herself at home.

Admittedly, with the right motivation Raven learned astonishingly quickly.

* * *

"How do you breathe through this?" Raven asked from behind the shades of the helmet Robin had given her.

"You don't entirely. Just, don't pay attention to it."

She had already pulled it off. "I can heal myself. I'm not wearing a helmet."

"Come on, Raven. You've got to wear the helmet," he said as he pushed it back into her hands.

She stared at him for just a moment and then put it back on her head. It was tight and hard to see through and muggy. Robin mouth twisted into an ill-concealed smile as he saw her grimace, irritated.

Seeing his expression was the last straw. "No," she said as she yanked it off. Her hair was a mess, but she clearly didn't care.

Robin calmly pulled his helmet on. "See," he said by way of demonstration, "It's not that bad."

"You look like an idiot," Raven said flatly.

Robin scowled. After a bit of silence he reached up and yanked off his helmet as well. "If you get hurt then don't blame me."

* * *

While Raven's mind seemed to be occupied with learning the mechanics of balance, speed, and stopping, Robin couldn't help but notice how entirely close one had to sit with two people on a motorcycle. Especially one that wasn't necessarily built for two. It made it even worse for him that he was sitting _behind_ Raven and had to reach all the way around her in order grasp the handles.

He was thankful that she didn't seem to notice.

"Okay, now let me steer by myself," Raven said.

"What?" he asked startled but then tried to recover, "You want to ride by yourself?"

"No," she said distractedly, "Just stop steering it with me."

"Then where should I put…?" his face flushed a bit.

Raven didn't seem to hear him, instead she simply pulled on one of his wrists, in an uncharacteristically impatient gesture. He couldn't pull back immediately or else she would lose control and they were moving at a fairly fast pace, so instead he slowly let his hands fall to her wrists and then slide backwards along her arms. Finally he placed his hands just above her hips, fingers on hipbones, nearly encircling her waist.

Raven, if she noticed, didn't care. Robin's attention was divided between where his hands were placed and just how fast they were actually going. It had never struck him that Raven would decide to ride as fast as he did. Granted, once he thought about it, the more he realized that Raven flew a lot, and likewise fell a lot, and it followed that she wouldn't necessarily be afraid of any of it anymore.

But he was human. And wasn't wearing a helmet. And he had _never_ ridden his cycle behind someone, he was always in control of it. So naturally, he was on edge. Raven took a corner at a high speed and his fingers itched to reach forward and take charge of the controls. At the beginning of another turn, he could feel the tires begin to skid a bit and he did suddenly lunge forward and grab the handlebars over her hands to help straighten them out. Raven jumped at the movement, their bodies were suddenly pressed so closely together that even she noticed.

As soon as the cycle was under control again she stopped it and stepped off. "Well," she said warily, "It _was_ going well."

"It's going very well considering the amount of time you've spent practicing."

"I don't want to do anymore," she said flatly, then relaxed her expression, "Not tonight anyway."

Robin looked at her consideringly. "Okay, get on back then and I'll take us home."

Robin actually paid attention as he noticed Raven's sudden trouble finding a handgrip as she sat behind him. Finally he reached back, took both of her hands and pulled them forward so that they were wrapped around his chest. He could feel her surprise, but he started up the cycle and moved forward before she had a chance to fully react. Her grip instinctually became tighter and she leaned closer.

Robin began to realize that Raven was one of those people that had no idea what her touch felt like. It was evident in the way that she would constantly change her grip and graze her fingers along his chest before finding a steadier hold of clothing. They changed a corner and Raven leaned forward fully, resting her forehead against his back and he did his best to ignore it.

She didn't realize that they had stopped for the night as she had her eyes closed while resting her head against Robin and so he let her stay a few extra moments. Finally he switched the cycle off before she could become suspicious. There was very little true physical touch between the members of the Tower and so he felt the desire to take advantage of the inadvertent contact.

Finally he turned it off and she pulled away and stood up. "Am I an expert?" she asked dryly.

He blinked a couple of times before deciding that she was joking.

* * *

And there it is.

Any suggestions for new skills to learn?

Please Review.


End file.
